I’m not ashamed of the gospel…(Romans 1:16).
Around 56 to Roman 57 AD the Apostle Paul was in Corinth, a wild city in the ancient province of Achaia, which is part of modern-day Greece. Paul had come to Corinth earlier to tell people about some good news. Today’s text uses the word “gospel”, which means “good news”. He had proclaimed in Corinth that God loved the world so much that he had sent his son Jesus to die on a cross to make forgiveness and new life possible. A group of men and women came to faith in Jesus and a church was planted in Corinth.
When he wrote the words of today’s text, he had returned to see how things were going and received word about the men and women of the church in city of Rome. We really don’t know how the church in Rome started. Some believe Peter had traveled there, and like Paul, shared the “good news”. Others speculate that men and women who were in Jerusalem on day of Pentecost took the message back to Rome and a church grew out of their communication of the “good news”. One thing is certain; Paul had not been there.
Wanting to prepare the way for a future visit (which came about through a set of circumstances that Paul could not have imagined as he wrote to the Romans) Paul wrote an epistle. It was a letter that was to be read to the entire church. We find it in our bibles under the title “Romans”. Throughout the centuries, it has been hailed as the greatest of all of Paul’s writings, and apart from the gospels (accounts of the “good news”) as the greatest document in all the New Testament.
Since Paul had not personally been to Rome, he felt compelled to write about the foundational truths and principles of what it means to be in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Paul knew there was power in this message. It was a message, which in his words, was “the power of God for salvation”. We should pay attention to such a statement.
The outcome of Paul’s writing was that you and I have a “book” in the New Testament that systematically lays out virtually everything you need to know about God’s plan for the rescue (the true meaning of the word we usually translate “salvation”) of the human race. It is titled “Romans”.
Romans is a book that we should all strive to master. If you know and understand the truths communicated in Romans, you will have a solid foundation for your Christian faith. If you are not a Christian, you need to understand what the Christian faith actually entails.
Over the next few months, I will periodically take a passage from Romans and explain it. I’m doing this on Sundays at the church I pastor and you can expand these short reflections by either listening to the audio, or watching the video as I teach through the book. Here is the link to the first message, which amplifies on what I’m writing here: http://www.highlinecc.org/go/index.php/teaching/recent-sermons/sermon/17….
For today, let me give you a challenge. Begin reading Romans. Read slowly, and ponder what you read. And if you don’t understand something, go to the audios or videos for clarification. Paul said he was not ashamed of the gospel. This was actually an idiom that expressed that he was so jazzed about the “good news” that he couldn’t stop talking about it. It would be great if we all adopted the same conviction.